Early the next morning, as Leo was descending from the Seven Stars Sword Sect, he came face to face with a woman named Fire Rose. He didn’t find it strange that she suddenly appeared there because he was wearing a special watch given to him by WONDER.
“I couldn’t find you at the clinic, so I had to come here,” Fire Rose said with a smile.
“Do you have a mission for me?” Leo asked.
Fire Rose shook her head. “You’re the honorable leader of Seven Stars Sword Sect and I’m curious about martial arts sects, so I came uninvited. If you’re not in a hurry, can you take me around Seven Stars Sword Sect?”
When there was nothing else going on, Leo generally wouldn’t refuse requests from beautiful women. So he took Fire Rose back to Seven Stars Sword Sect.
It wasn’t until noon after they had lunch together that they walked down the mountain together. When they reached the bottom of the mountain, Leo found out that Fire Rose hadn’t driven herself there but rather took a taxi instead.
She did this just to make sure that when Leo returned home from Seven Stars Sword Sect she could hitchhike with him if possible.
While driving back home shortly after leaving Seven Star’s Sword Sect behind them, Leo’s brow furrowed suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Fire Rose couldn’t help asking.
“We’re being followed,” Leo signaled for her to look in the rearview mirror.
Fire Rose glanced at it and saw an off-road Honda trailing them behind them as well.
“Maybe it’s just coincidence?”
“We’ll see.”
Leo stepped on gas pedal and accelerated before turning right onto another road ahead of them.
The Honda behind also sped up and followed suit by turning right too.
“It really is following us.” Fire rose frowned slightly.
Leo sneered slightly then turned left onto another road.
“Miss Koken, it seems like our target has discovered us and is no longer heading towards the city center,” said the man driving the Honda SUV to Maniwa through the earpiece.
Through the earpiece, Maniwa’s command came through, “Replace the second team in three minutes.”
“Roger that!” The male driver responded loudly.
Three minutes later, the trailing Honda SUV disappeared, replaced by a Mitsubishi SUV.
“Leo, who do you think is tracking us?” Fire Rose asked.
“If I’m not mistaken, it should be someone from Orientia,” Leo replied.
“From Orientia? You mean Maniwa’s people?” Fire Rose knew about the connection between Leo and Maniwa.
“That’s right,” Leo nodded, a cold light flickering in his eyes. “Why don’t you get out of the car for now? They are after me, and it’s my business with them. I don’t want you to get involved.”
Leo started to slow down, preparing to pull over at the side of the road.
“No need to stop. Now that you’re part of WONDER, your business is my business too. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to teach those Orientia bastards a lesson,” Fire Rose objected.
Since Fire Rose put it that way, Leo gave up the idea of stopping the car.
With his left hand on the steering wheel, Leo made a hand gesture with his right hand and took out an armor made of Purple Thunder Crocodile skin from the Void Storage Talisman.
“Put this on,” Leo handed the armor to Fire Rose.
Fire Rose touched the armor with her hand, surprised. “What is this? It has a unique texture.”
“This is an armor I refined from the skin of the Purple Thunder Crocodile. Once you put it on, it can withstand ten fatal attacks and provides full-body protection.”
“This thin as a cicada’s wing thing can really withstand ten fatal attacks?” Fire Rose felt amazed, finding it quite mystical.
“And by the way, where did you get this thing? It’s like magic,” she asked.
“Don’t worry about that. Just put it on quickly. We might have a fierce battle ahead,” Leo replied.
Although Fire Rose was curious, she knew it wasn’t the time to ask questions. She unbuckled her seatbelt and put the armor on over her clothes.
Normally, the armor should be worn underneath, but she didn’t want to undress in front of Leo.
The sunlight shone through the car window, casting a pale purple glow on the armor. The glow complemented Fire Rose’s fiery long hair, giving her a noble aura.
Over ten minutes later, Leo looked into the rearview mirror and saw that the Mitsubishi SUV that had been following them was gone.
“The tracking car is gone. Did they give up?” Fire Rose couldn’t help but ask.
Leo shook his head. “They didn’t give up; they’re preparing to take action. When the time comes, don’t worry about me. If we can’t beat them, we’ll run.”
“I won’t leave my comrade behind. If we can’t win, we’ll run together!” Fire Rose raised an eyebrow determinedly.
Just as Leo slowed down the car, three shadows suddenly darted out from the trees on the right side of the road.
The three figures were wearing black clothes with masks covering their faces, and their movements were as agile as raccoons.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”
Three black-clad individuals simultaneously swung their right hands, releasing black knives flying towards Leo, who was in the driver’s seat behind the car’s windshield.
Leo hit the brakes hard, bringing the car to a halt. A series of “thud, thud, thud” sounds could be heard as a row of knives appeared on the car’s hood and windshield.
Fortunately, the windshield was sturdy enough; otherwise, the knives would have pierced through the glass and hit Leo instead of getting halfway stuck in it.
“Quick, get out of the car!”
Almost at the same moment Leo and Fire Rose got out of the car, another round of knives came flying towards them.
This time, the car’s windshield shattered directly, and the knives viciously embedded themselves into the driver’s seat.
Just as Leo was about to launch a counterattack against the three ninjas, Fire Rose preempted him, saying, “Leo, leave these three to me. It’s been a while since I taught those Orientia ninjas a lesson.”
Leo turned his head and glanced at Fire Rose, nodding. He also wanted to witness the abilities of this extraordinary woman with supernatural powers.
“Boom!”
Fire Rose’s fire-based energy erupted, making her whole body look like glowing red charcoal.
Not only that, her fiery red hair seemed to ignite, complementing her exceptional appearance, as if a flame goddess had descended to the mortal realm.
“Clearwater Fire Lotus, come forth!” Fire Rose extended her right hand, and a fiery lotus appeared in the palm of her hand.
The fiery lotus emitted scorching high temperatures, rotating while multiplying: one became two, two became three.
Three fiery lotuses lined up in a row in front of Fire Rose.
Fire Rose rotated her wrist, elegantly pointing her right index finger.
The three fiery lotuses instantly transformed into three streaks of fiery red light, shooting towards the three black-clad ninjas with incredible speed.
One of the ninjas swiftly formed hand seals with both hands, then blew on them near his mouth. A burst of emerald green water sprayed out from his mouth.
The water rapidly expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive blue water sphere, colliding with the three incoming fiery lotuses.